Valentine's Fools
by a certain slant of light
Summary: Shunsui's eager to give Nanao her valentine, a fact that makes the busy vice captain a little less than pleased. The only thing that could make it worse? He's giving her her April Fool's gift as well. [ShunsuiNanao]


**Author's Note:** Don't ask. I was reading Valentine's fanfiction, and kind of felt a twinge of regret over not having written any myself. And thus here we are, nearly a full month later, with some hijinx and fluff! Dedicated to the Shunsui/Nanao community on LiveJournal, and written with them in mind! I also have another Valentine's Day idea for these two, so you might keep your eyes peeled for that if you actually like my writing. Enjoy!

**Author's Afterthought:** I was hesitant to submit this, what with it being my thirtieth submission to the website. In the end, I just said, "Ah, screw it!" and posted it. Onto the next mini-milestone!

**Disclaimer:** I do not own Bleach, nor any of its respective characters, locations, etc. If I did, I'd make a whole Valentine's day volume for every division and pairing, and thus people probably wouldn't buy it. xD If I ever get mad wicked awesome(r) at drawing, I'll make a doujinshi like that.

* * *

"Valentine's Fools"

"Nanao-chan!" a familiar voice rang, slicing through the dull air and filling it with both excitement and imminence. "Do you know what day it is?"

"It is Wednesday," she told him matter-of-factly, perusing a sheaf of documents. "It is sunny outside, mildly warm but slightly damp and it appears as if it might rain later. Is there anything else you need to know?"

"Oh, Nanao-chan, your sarcasm wounds me," Shunsui drawled, leaning down and perching his arms on the desk, peering innocently up at her. "Well, you know what day it is, but do you know what _day_ it is?"

Granting him only the slightest glance over the frames of her glasses, Nanao resumed paperwork. "Well, according to this monstrous stack of paperwork you aren't doing, it is February the fourteenth."

"Quite right!" he sang, popping back up and nearly beside himself with vigor. "Valentine's Day!"

"Valentine's Day," Nanao muttered darkly, ruing his attentiveness to the most asinine occasions.

"So, after you're done all that gruesome paperwork, perhaps we might go out for a drink?" he ventured, pacing lightly back and forth in front of her.

Her eyebrow twitched, the insistent lazy shuffling of his feet raking her ears. "No, Captain."

"Oh, but it is such a romantic day!" Shunsui lamented emphatically. "What will it be without a lovely, drunken vice-captain there by my side!"

"Ask Vice-Captain Matsumoto," Nanao told him, scribbling a few notes on a paper and moving onto the next. "She's both lovely and drunken."

He pouted indignantly. "But I see her drunk all the time. It's not the same!"

"It will have to be," she said, tones clipped. She was teetering on the edge of a familiar fence: on one side was the stack of papers that needed to be signed, and on the other was her captain that needed to be slapped. She was having trouble deciding which took immediate prevalence.

"But Nanao-chan is always working!" Shunsui continued to complain, before his voice became perky. "She deserves a break!"

"You just want candy," she droned, trying her very best to ignore him.

He made her efforts impossible, looming over her with wide shoulders that blocked her light. "Must you be so cruel on such a lovely day?"

"Lovely day?" she asked, not bothering to look at him. "It's going to rain."

Shunsui sighed dramatically. "So negative! Will you not go even if I give you a Valentine gift?"

"All the chocolate in the world could not move me from this chair, Captain."

"Of course not," he said stately. "Nanao-chan wouldn't want chocolate. However, I do have a gift that will absolutely bedazzle her."

"Somehow," she muttered, "I very much doubt it."

Fleeing from the room, Shunsui gave Nanao only a few moments of peace before returning with dozens upon dozens of papers in his arms. "See? I did all the paperwork!"

Nanao looked up, befuddled. "What?"

Shunsui grinned from ear to ear. "Feel free to shower me with praise and rose petals!"

Reflexively adjusting her glasses, she poked them back up onto the bridge of her nose and leered. "It's a nice trick, sir, but all the paperwork is right here." She motioned to the large pile just near her elbow.

"Not so!" he corrected. "Those are copies!"

"What?" Nanao asked, incredulous. "You can't be serious!"

"Oh, I am!" Shunsui smirked, hands on hips. "Consider this your April Fool's present as well! I am just a demon of generosity today!"

"You made copies of more than thirty-two pages of reports just to _trick me_?" She stood now, glaring at him. "_That's_ your gift?"

"Of course, Nanao-chan!" he picked up the stack again, refusing her inspection of them. "Nothing less for my beautiful vice-captain!"

"Let me see those!" she fumed, side stepping the desk and making a calculated lunge for the packet in his hand.

"You don't believe me?" he asked. "Have you no faith in me, Nanao-chan?"

"I don't believe you have enough drive in your pinky finger to stay up all night making copies!" She tried and missed again. "Give me that!"

"I am insulted!" he said theatrically, again evading her mad grasps.

"I said give it to me!"

Shunsui smirked. "Okay. " As her hand again reached for the stack of papers in his hand, he suddenly let them go. As they fluttered to the ground, he seized Nanao's moment of confusion and blind anger and took hold of her wrist, pulling her to him. In one fluid movement, his arms were wrapped around her, one hand at the small of her back. Her breath hitched in surprise as he trailed his fingers up her throat and over her jaw, teasing and reveling in the cute shade of pink she turned.

"You-" she began to say, but was silenced when his lips covered hers, his already half open in a euphoric grin. Nanao's eyes flew wide, but she regretfully found herself unable to move. In fact, before she knew it (and despite her better judgment) she closed her eyes and, most strangely of all… kissed back.

Shunsui tipped her chin up and nibbled her bottom lip only slightly before retreating, leaving her wanting just a bit more.

In the wake of their contact, silence drifted through the room, broken only by the chirping of birds or rustle of leaves outside. After a few stunned moments, Nanao regained enough composure to glance awkwardly at the papers on the ground – all blank.

"You tricked me," she barely whispered, her voice a mixture of annoyance and fancy.

"Happy Valentine's Day," he murmured, placing another feather light kiss on her lips, pleased by her dreamy smile.

"That paperwork will take all day to complete," she told him even as she nestled into his haori and delighted in his scent. "You sweet, romantic fool."


End file.
